Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor has improved the half-marathon world record by 17 seconds. The 26-year-old long-distance runner came in Copenhagen in 58:01 minutes to the finish. The previous record time of 58:18 minutes, his compatriot Abraham Kiptun was running in Valencia last year.
Thus, Kamworor traveled the distance in the Danish capital at a speed of 21.82 kilometers per hour, his average time per kilometer was 2:45 minutes. The Kenyan is also a strong long-haul specialist: in the 2018 Marathon (42.195 kilometers) in New York in 2018, he finished after 2:06:26, and in 2017 he even won the race, albeit with a slightly weaker time than the year after.
In comparison, the marathon is the much more important track in running: The half marathon is indeed popular with amateur athletes and folk races, the program at the major tournaments, the World Athletics Championships or the Summer Olympics, the discipline is not.
Training partner Kipchoge wants to run under two hours in October
Kamworor is one of the many training partners of marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge; congratulating via Instagram: "We are all proud of your world record run Good planning, preparation, teammates, coaching are crucial to break a record."
Kipchoge wants to make a marathon in a not yet scheduled attempt in October as the first runner under the two-hour limit. The "Ineos 1:59 Challenge" will take place between October 12th and 20th in Vienna. Kipchoge had done a similar experiment two years ago with Nike, when he needed 2:00:25 hours for the distance.
Officially, the times from these so-called laboratory tests but not, among other things, because permanently new tempo runners are used. The official world record in the marathon keeps Kipchoge nevertheless: He ran the distance in Berlin 2018 in 2:01:39 hours.
